Steve and Grace's Most Excellent Adventure
by Capt. Cow
Summary: Only Steve McGarrett could manage to turn picking up Grace from school into a dangerous kidnapping. Or, Steve and Grace make new friends with men in balaclavas. Rating has gone up to T. Finally an update!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Hawaii 5-0. Just playing in the sandbox. **

**All mistakes are my own. Hope you enjoy!**

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**Steve McGarrett is starting to think that there might be a hint of truth to Danny's claims that he attracts trouble more than most people. (He thinks that his partner's exact words might have been something along the lines of "crazy super-SEAL trouble magnet, you are to danger what Justin Bieber is to my daughter's deluded age group," but feels that this is an unfair exaggeration.) He is however on the verge of acknowledging that maybe danger does find him more than the average soul. This is a revelation that has been inspired by the fact that he has once again managed to turn what should be a simple task (and one that, apparently, most ordinary humans can perform without any real difficulties at all) into an epic danger filled situation worthy of his aneurism face. Not that he has an aneurism face of course, that's Danny inspired nonsense. But _should_ he have such an expression now would certainly be when he would be employing it.

The former SEAL is fairly convinced, after all, that almost anyone else would have managed to pick Gracie up from school without being kidnapped. And certainly without getting Gracie kidnapped too. He is definitely regretting accepting Danny's plea to collect his child as he sits on the floor of a van, jolting along to who-knows-where, blood dripping irritatingly down the side of his face while he uses one arm to keep a wide-eyed, teary Grace tucked closely into his side (the side furthest from the two balaclava clad men sitting in the back with them).

As a man largely unfamiliar with small children (although, he supposes he is actually more experienced with kids in life-threatening situations than just in normal life), he isn't quite sure what he should be saying to Gracie right now. She is clinging to him, curled up into his side so tightly that it is as if she is trying to transport right through him (presumably to somewhere that isn't the increasingly sweaty van that they are in.) Not sure what else to do Steve gives her what he hopes is a reassuring squeeze, and attempts a comforting smile. When she meets his gaze he wonders if it is humanly possible for eyes to be as wide as hers currently are. He squeezes her to him once more and is sure to meet her gaze.

"It's ok sweetheart," he whispers, trying to remember that he is talking to a scared child and not a SEAL team, and therefore trying to make his voice as comforting as possible, "Danno will take care of all of it. You just hang tight."

This seems to be of some vague comfort because the eyes become slightly less terrifyingly open. Her grip doesn't loosen though.

Steve can't help but think that when he next sees Danny he is going to have a loud and quite physical discussion with him about the meaning of the phrase, "it will be the easiest thing in the world!"

****************************** (About an hour earlier)**********************

"It will be the easiest thing in the world!" Det. Danny Williams cried, feeling increasingly desperate.

Their witness was finally talking after refusing to cooperate for over three hours. Of course as good as this was for helping them solve their case it was the most useless timing ever, because Grace needed to be picked up very soon, and the witness was refusing to speak to anyone but him. Sometimes, the detective reflected, he was far too charming for his own good. It was not an observation that he decided to share with his partner.

"All you have to do is drive up to the school, park the car, go to her classroom and collect her. Even you can achieve that without too much trouble!"

McGarrett looked unconvinced. "I dunno Danny, I mean Gracie is a cool kid, but I am not good with kids! And what if there is information that we need to act on straight away? Are you sure you can't get Rachel to grab her and then you can collect her later tonight?"

Danny sighed. "Please? I can't ask Kono because she and Chin are only just on their way back from meeting with the brother. And I _certainly _can't ask Rachel! The last couple of times I've been meant to pick Gracie up something has come up, usually involving you trying to get me killed in new and exciting ways, and Rachel has had to do it. If I can't do it again today it's just more ammo for her that my job makes me a terrible father!"

Williams knew he had won the minute he finished speaking as his partner nodded slightly and dug into his desk to find his keys. Try as he might to hide it, Steve McGarrett was a big soft marshmallow inside when it came to Danny's relationship with his kid.

"You're doing all my paperwork on this case once Grace is back with Rachel."

Danny watched him go with a grin and went back to interview his witness.

****************************** (Present- In the Van)*********************

Steve wasn't sure if it was him or Grace who was more surprised when one of the balaclava-wearers spoke. They both tensed, and Grace tried to burrow even further into his side.

"You've made a real mess of our plans you know Detective," he said, his voice tinged with an accent that was so gentle it was impossible to identify. It was the shorter of the two men sitting in the back guarding them who spoke, the one who had gifted Steve with the wound still dribbling blood down his face back at the school after he had surrendered his weapon to them.

The former SEAL wasn't entirely sure what to do with that sentence, because none of it made sense. He wasn't a detective, and surely it was little Grace who had ruined their plans by being in the wrong place at the wrong time (and, _unfortunately, _not following his bellowed instruction to "run!" quite fast enough.) He decided to wait and see where the man would go though, and so settled for shifting his body slightly further between the little girl and the big scary bad man.

"We weren't expecting you to be picking your daughter up today from school and assumed we would have a much easier time grabbing her than we did."

Steve's brain had started playing the music from _Psycho_. They thought he was Danny! And they hadn't been after him or his partner; they had been after poor little Grace from the beginning! He wasn't entirely sure what to do with this information and so sat tight, trying to work out if it would be better or worse to reveal that he was in fact _not_ who they thought he was.

Sadly, Grace was not a telepath and had missed this part of the plan, because she unlocked herself from Steve just long enough to glare at the kidnapper and announce, much to his chagrin, that they were too stupid to catch her Daddy, that this was her Uncle Steve instead, and when her Daddy _did_ find them they would be in huge trouble. Any doubts Steve might have had that Grace and Danny were definitely related vanished at this point.

Steve couldn't see anything of the two men sitting across from them except their eyes under the balaclavas, but the way that they suddenly glowed with intensity made him very nervous indeed. He quickly tucked Grace back in behind him, and tried to get across the idea that she should not annoy the kidnappers anymore with a quick shushing glare.

The stocky kidnapper had picked up a mobile phone and was typing a number.

"Uncle Steve hey?" he said, grinning at the ex-SEAL, "we might be able to do this they way we wanted to after all."

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**Ok, so first attempt at Hawaii 5-0. We are only up to about ep 6 over here in Aus, but this bunny has been EATING at me! So please excuse if everyone isn't quite right, I'm still trying to get to grips with the characters!** **Life is mad, but hopefully an update is coming soon. Am hoping it should end up about 5 chapters or so. And definitely some Steve whump (and maybe Danny) coming soon. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks for all the lovely people who reviewed, favourited or got the alerts for this story! They made me all warm and fuzzy inside! Looking forward to knowing what you think of this chapter! **

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Danny was trying incredibly hard _not _to be frantic. And to some extent he was succeeding because what he really wanted to be doing was either repeatedly punching a wall or weeping hysterically and he was doing neither. If he wasn't so convinced that the entire world had just become a darker and infinitely more terrifying place he might have taken the time to be proud of this accomplishment.

To say that calling Rachel had not being a fun experience would be like saying that swimming in shark-infested waters with a bloody nose is a little bit unpleasant. He wasn't sure which had been more difficult to deal with, the yelling that she had started with, or the way her voice had become increasingly wobbly until she had finally passed the phone to step-Stan. He had been able to hear her crying in the background, huge gulping sobs that he had only heard once before, as she had asked him for a divorce.

This had not helped Danny's composure, which had been growing increasingly fragile since he received a call from Grace's school detailing shouts, gunshots and balaclava wearing men speeding away with his daughter and partner in tow.

Trying to do his job was helping to a certain extent, but he was still trying to recover from the shock of arriving at the school to find overturned chairs, his daughter's abandoned school bag and, worst of all, blood.

It was the blood that they were concentrating on now. Reports indicated that Steve and Gracie had been taken out of a back door of the school and shoved into a van. (Unmarked of course, and no plates.) This suggested that the majority of the blood, which was part of a trail leading back into the maze of classrooms, was not from either of the kidnappees. Rather, it was most likely from an injured kidnapper.

Danny was trying to take reassurance from the fact that the worst of the blood probably did not belong to his kid, or his mad partner. It still did not explain the small speckling of blood that they had found. His instincts were screaming that particular sample came from one Steve Mc-Rambo. (He wasn't even going to consider the possibility that it came from Grace. Otherwise he would have been completely unable to do his job.)

Chin Ho Kelly stopped abruptly in front of him, and Danny almost walked straight into the back of him. Not the most stealthy piece of police work ever. He shook himself. If he was going to be on the job, then he needed his mind to be _here_, and not straying all over the place, wondering about how much McGarrett was bleeding, or what the last thing he'd said to Grace was (probably "I love you monkey," but he didn't know _for sure_ and it was killing him.) The blood trail that they had been following through the now evacuated school had dotted itself into a classroom that now had a closed door. Danny knocked the safety off his weapon and positioned himself carefully on the other side of the door, watching as Kono mirrored his action. Chin raised his foot to bash the door in.

Before they could take any action there was a distinct _thud_ from the other side of the door. The 5-0 team exchanged startled glances and then moved quickly.

Chin bellowed that they were coming in, and then kicked the door and stepped through, pointing his weapon in the direction that the thud had come from. An incredibly surprised middle-aged woman with tears pouring down her face, and with a large dictionary in her hand, looked back at him. On the floor behind her he could just make out a form all dressed in black. Kono quickly moved to cover the unconscious man, while Danny and Chin faced the woman, who was apparently eager to tell her story.

"He just burst into the room as I was collecting my things!" She exclaimed, "and told me to give him my car keys or he would kill me! So I went to find them in my desk, but then I picked up the dictionary instead, because I thought I could hit him and knock him out. I've seen it happen before you know. I watched a lot of crime dramas. But before I even got the chance, he just collapsed right to the floor!"

It only took a nod from Danny for Chin to be grabbing his mobile and calling for the paramedics who were waiting outside to make their way in. Danny resisted the urge to celebrate in some way. They had one of the kidnappers! It was surely only a matter of time because Gracie and Aquaman were back with him. Then he could give Grace a big hug, and take her to the beach, and maybe even stomach the monstrosity that was pizza with pineapple on it. (Who was he kidding? She could ask him to take her to Disneyland and they would be on the next flight, just so long as he could have her back again! He'd even hug one of those absurd people dressed as apparently beloved Disney characters.)

Steve's reward would be a strange mix between Danny being incredibly glad he was alive, and Danny being so angry he could hardly see straight for his partner getting his daughter involved in something like this in the first place.

But he was getting ahead of himself. Following the cuffed prisoner out of the room (he wasn't interested in anymore of the teacher's story, though she was now proudly displaying her weapon of choice to the rest of the officers who had arrived on the scene), Danny tried to stay in the present. There were still a lot more steps before he had his daughter safe in his arms.

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Steve's brain was having trouble with all of the things that it was currently being asked to do. The pain receivers were working over time, as each jolt of the van exaggerated his increasingly bad headache and caused what had been a bit of a twinge in his ribs to flare into an ever-worsening pain. His brain was also working over time to deal with his numerous current issues. How to comfort Grace was one that he was using some brain power to ponder. Why the kidnappers were after Danny was also pressing heavily on him. How they were going to escape from a van filled with armed, well-trained men was another thing needing his attention. Most importantly, perhaps, was trying to work out just what exactly it meant for him and Grace (mostly Grace, because it had become his new purpose in life to have her return to Danno in exactly the same shape that she last saw him in), that the kidnappers now realised that they had not, in fact, captured the detective and his daughter, but the detective's partner.

From the sly gleam that had come over short-and-stocky balaclava man's face when he realised that Danny wasn't with them, Steve had decided that it probably wasn't a great thing.

There had been no more communication directly with the prisoner's since Grace's big reveal, but short-and-stocky had called someone shortly after it, talking so softly that Steve only heard snatches. There had been a number of mentions of revenge, and "making him pay," which had not sat well with the ex-SEAL's already slightly queasy stomach. But he was going to have to wait and see what happened, because, unlike his usual attitude which was something like run lots, shoot first, shoot again and then consider whether it was a good plan, now he had much more important collateral damage to consider than just himself.

Steve fought down a gasp of pain as the van stopped abruptly, and Grace tightened her hold. (She definitely had a possibly career as a wrestler or barnacle ahead of her.) Light streamed into where they were sitting as the back doors were flung open by two more armed men, taking their total bad guy count to 6. _Damnit _he thought. Then Steve noticed that they weren't wearing balaclava's; their faces were uncovered. _Double damnit. _That suggested that they didn't care about being able to be identified. The music from _Psycho_ started to echo through McGarrett's brain again.

The kidnapper's motioned with their weapons for them to start moving, and so Steve did, carefully manoeuvring Grace's limpet like grip so that he could pick her up and carry her out of the van. His ribs protested this decision rather vehemently, but he decided it was easier to keep her safe if she was as close as he could get her, rather than walking beside him. (And he didn't really want to tell her she had to let go anyway. He sensed tears in his future if he attempted that.)

Once they were outside the van his senses went into overdrive, as he gazed around their new location, trying to pick up some clues. That they were very isolated was obvious. They were being led to a dodgy looking house that was sitting completely alone, surrounded by dense forest. Steve's brain crossed out the possibility of a helicopter rescue. The road they had just come down was dirt, and surrounded by trees, making it so that the only way in or out by vehicle was easily guarded. Which ruled out a ground assault. _Damnit. _

Once inside they were led to stand in front of a man who was obviously the one that had set Steve's craptastic afternoon in motion. He looked like he had gotten all of his ideas about how to be evil from Bond villains. He was dressed in an immaculate suit, and sitting in a large armchair puffing quite nonchalantly on a cigar. Usually this would have been an offence that got you a McGarrett smirk at least, but Steve resisted the urge, reminding himself once again that he had Danny's whole reason for living to protect. He could smirk later, once she was safe.

Once they were arranged so that Steve and Grace were planted directly in front of Dr No, and the six henchmen were spread neatly around with their weapons trained on the two prisoners, their captor began to speak.

"Miss Grace Williams!" He exclaimed, "What a lovely joy it is to meet you at last!" Grace, being Danno's child, appeared about to answer this, probably with a long, slightly teary rant about everything that was wrong with her day so far, but Steve stopped her with a squeeze, so she settled for a watery glare over her shoulder at the man. This, unfortunately, appeared to delight him and he continued on in the same jovial tone.

"And I do believe we also have "Uncle Steve" with us as well? Although after looking through your wallet I realise that we are blessed to have a Navy Lieutenant Commander with us. What a joy!" McGarrett gave him a much _less_ watery version of the Gracie's glare. Once again this did not perturb their captor whose voice, if possible, became even more like that of a host greeting long lost friends.

"I was terribly disappointed, you know, when my men thought that they had captured Williams. Once I saw him I knew I would just have to kill him straight away, and that would have spoiled all of my fun!" Grace had given up being tough and was curling tightly into Steve's shoulder again. He hefted her up a bit, and tightened his grip. He _really_ didn't like where he thought this was going.

"Imagine my relief when I realise that we have managed to secure not one, very valuable hostage," here his gaze lingered over Grace longer than McGarrett was comfortable with, "but two!" Dr No paused briefly. "My men tell me that you were quite the unexpected handful at the school, even going so far as to shoot one of them so that he could not follow? But no worries, I am sure that you will come in very handy when the time comes."

Steve was trying very hard not to feel like the canary about to be eaten by a cat.

"I would remind you though, Lieutenant Commander, that I will not take kindly to anymore _incidents_ like the one at the school. We all have Miss Williams' safety to consider after all. Now, if you would be so kind, I have a phone call to make that I have been looking forward to for a number of years. Remember to play nice now Uncle Steve."

The phone barely had time to ring before it was answered, and Steve was unsurprised by the voice on the other end, though Grace exploded like a live-wire when she heard it.

"Steve! Is Grace safe? Where is she!" Danny could be heard bellowing down the phone.

Grace managed to reply with a quick scream of "Danno!" before all of the armed people in the room tightened their grips and Steve quickly hushed her.

"Monkey? Are you there?"

"Grace can't come to the phone right now Detective Williams, but she and he Uncle Steve and very anxious for you to know that they are with an old friend of yours," purred the Bond villain down the line, "and that they will be staying with this old friend for some time."

The ice in Danny's tone when he responded let Steve know exactly how worried he should be about the man who had taken them.

"Watson, I swear to God I will kill you if you hurt my kid."

Yeah, Steve _definitely_ didn't like where this was heading.

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**So once again, all mistakes are my own. This is an uber quick update for me, so unfortunately you might be waiting a little while for the next chapter, which I will try to have up on Friday. Would LOVE to know what you thought, so drop me a review please! I'm still fiddling with my Danno, he usually talks so much it's so hard to know how to write him! But let me know what you think! Thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Once again thanks so much to everyone who reviewed/alerted the story (particularly all you gorgeous reviewers, you all made my week!) Keep it up please! Also, I was reminded last chapter that Jamieson is actually the Governor's name (my bad.) And so our baddie is now called Watson instead, to avoid confusing him with her. (Hopefully there will be no confusion with the gorgeous character Dr Watson in everybody's favourite show, **_**Sherlock.) **_

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_Previously…_

_The ice in Danny's tone when he responded let Steve know exactly how worried he should be about the man who had taken them. _

"_Watson, I swear to God I will kill you if you hurt my kid." _

_Yeah, Steve _definitely_ didn't like where this was heading._

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Dr No, (Watson, McGarrett reminded himself, his name is Watson), didn't take all that kindly to this statement. His eyes flashed momentarily with a rage that Steve did not find very comforting. This guy really hated Danny.

His voice took on a tone much harsher than his previously jovial one. "Wait and see Detective Williams. Just you wait and see." He ended the call just in time to shut off the sound of angry protest shooting down the line. (Steve thought this was possibly for the best, because Danno was not known for being particularly pleasant when he was angry, and ranting at maniacal lunatics who currently have your daughter in their possession is probably the best way to get said daughter seriously injured.)

"Well now that we've got that all sorted out, perhaps you would like to follow my men? We were only expecting Miss Williams, but I am sure that you will both fit in the room we had assigned her."

Steve shifted Grace as they started to move, still clutching her tightly, but making sure that she was positioned so that he still had an excellent view of their surroundings. They were led down a narrow hallway, but he was surprised that they were not taken to a basement of any sort. Instead they were shoved into what must have previously been a bedroom. Steve was pretty proud that he managed to keep his balance despite the nasty push that he received. It was a smallish room, with a small window, though he saw immediately that the window would be no help, it was covered by security roller shutters, and barred as well. Apparently their captors had decided that it was better to overestimate rather than underestimate their captives. (Though, he was surprised that they had gone to all this trouble when they had only been planning on keeping a scared eight year old there.) He had seen a number of heavy locks on the door as they were pushed through it, and realised that they inside had been reinforced, so that it could not be kicked down or rammed through.

The room was empty except for a thin looking mattress that sat on the floor in one corner. It was towards this that McGarrett walked. He lowered himself down carefully, because Grace had shown absolutely no inclination of letting go, and he wasn't about to make her now that there was no immediate danger that he was going to need to get into a fight with anyone. For a second there while Watson had been on the phone to Danny he had seen some of the minion's tensing, as though preparing for a fight of some kind (probably the kind of fight where he was held down and got punched in the mouth a lot) and he has been desperately trying to work out how he could protect Grace in that situation if she refused to let go of him. Being led to the room like this was a reprieve, though he was not sure why they had been allowed it. He was pretty sure that it wasn't an altruistic reason. More likely Watson was just showing his hand to Danno so that he would spend every waking second between now and the next phone call wondering what was happening. McGarrett had to acknowledge that it was a good tactic; the further worry would certainly be a distraction that would make finding where they were being held harder. Though, he was pretty sure that Danny operated best when he was furious, and so what could have been a distraction would actually fuel him to work harder and faster (not that he would have been working lazily and slowly with Grace missing anyway.)

Deciding that there wasn't much that he could do right now in the way of escaping Steve thought that he should probably concentrate on helping his fellow prisoner.

"Gracie? How you going sweetheart? Are you ok?"

She shook her head quickly. "I want to go home Uncle Steve," she whispered, her terrified voice breaking his heart. "That man said he was going to _kill_ Danno. He scared me."

He would never admit it out loud, but there was a moment when Steve thought he was actually more prepared to face whatever the Bond villain and his entourage had waiting for him in the other room than try and have this conversation with Grace. He was really not cut out for comforting small children.

"He's a pretty scary man out there I agree," Steve said, not wanting to dismiss her feelings, "but I have seen your Dad when his pizza comes with pineapple on it, and I reckon that he is a pretty scary guy too. What do you think?"

She had loosened her grip slightly to blink at him owlishly, apparently confused by where this line of questioning was going. Her voice was solemn as she agreed with him.

"Danno hates pineapple on his pizza."

"That's right. And I know for sure that something Danno definitely hates more than pineapple on his pizza is people who are mean to his Monkey. So if you think about how scary he is about pizzas, he will be much scarier about this. So no matter how nasty that man out there seems, I reckon there's no question that your Danno can take him. He'll put him in prison for a long long time as soon as he finds him." Steve waited a second for his convoluted pizza-logic to be absorbed by his companion. After a moment she nodded, accepting what he had told her.

"Danno did sound really angry."

Steve smiled at her, appreciating the fact that her grip had loosened even more. His aching ribs almost wept with relief. "So we don't need to worry about Danno. He can take care of himself. We just need to make sure that we take care of ourselves too, ok?"

She nodded again, once more accepting what he was telling her. He assumed this was a Rachel trait, because Danny was not one for just accepting him at his word without large amounts of talking and arm waving.

"Now, that man out there isn't very nice, and Danno might not be here for a little while, because he still has to work out how to find us, so I just want you to make sure that you do everything that I tell you until he gets here ok? That way we can all stay safe, even though this is a bit of a scary situation." He made sure that he was looking right at her when he said this, making eye contact so that she could realise how important this was. After all, one of the reasons that she was here at all was that she had not run when he had shouted for her too at the school. Steve didn't want to end up in another situation where he thought he could win, only to find her being held by an enormous man holding a gun threateningly close to her. He was pretty sure that image was going to haunt him for a long time.

"Ok." She said, nodding again. "I'll do whatever you say."

She had let go completely of his neck, where her arms had been tightly wrapped for what seemed like a long time. She was calm enough that instead she tucked herself into his side, still close, but not actually clutched around him like a vine.

There was a somewhat awkward pause where Steve wondered what to do next. He had done his comforting, and apparently succeeded to some extent but now they were just sitting in an empty, relatively dark room, because the bulb was letting off only a weak glow. He tried to think back to when Mary Ann was a child. What had he done back then to entertain her?

Sensing the morale in the room start to plummet, as Grace had time to contemplate just _exactly _how terrifying this situation was Steve asked rather desperately, "Do you like stories Gracie?"

The smile and nod that he received were as genuinely pleased as he could have hoped for given the circumstances, and he grinned in relief. Until he realised that he didn't _actually_ know any stories. He decided that this was not going to stop him.

"Um, right. Well. Once upon a time there was a girl named…Tracey. And she lived on an island with her friends, who were all, um, animals. She had a big lion, who protected her and took care of her, but who would never go swimming with her even though she lived right by the water. And a seal, who was friends with the lion too, even though they seemed to shout at each other a lot, who liked to hang with her at the beach, and take her to the movies…"

Gracie cuddled up to his side as he spoke, and Steve allowed himself to think that maybe this was all going to turn out ok after all.

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The phone call had come just as they were arriving at the hospital to interview their kidnapping suspect. The timing of it was pretty lucky really, Danny had decided, because if it had come while he was actually driving the car he was pretty sure his shiny silver Camero would be wrapped around a tree somewhere. He didn't think that he had ever experienced so many intense emotions in such a short period of time. When the caller ID had shone McGarrett's name at him Danny hadn't considered anything but that his partner had miraculously escaped, saving Gracie, and earning himself another story to tell unsuspecting women at bars who swooned over the word _hero. _Grace's scream had alerted him pretty quickly that all was not well, although just hearing her voice had been more of a relief than he could describe, despite the circumstances. The switch from relief to overpowering terror when he heard Watson's voice had actually almost physically knocked him off his feet. He had been forced to steady himself by leaning against his car, while waving frantically at Kono, trying to mouth 'Steve's phone' and 'trace.' Somehow she had understood what was happening, and had moved a distance away to make a phone call to try and get a trace on the call.

Grace hadn't spoken again, and he hadn't heard from Steve at all, though he was pretty sure he had heard a whisper of his partner's voice in the background, muttering about staying quiet, most likely trying to calm Grace.

Danny hadn't been able to help the anger that seeped into his tone after he first heard Watson. He had been so angry, and so helpless that he was almost overwhelmed. The guilt that all of this was _his _fault, caused by someone who he thought he had left behind in Jersey was an unpleasant addition to his already fragile mental state. Watson's harsh reply hadn't helped matters at all, and Danny had almost thrown the phone across the hospital car park that they were standing in when the call had been abruptly disconnected, shouting angrily as he resisted the urge.

Walking across the parking lot towards the hospital entrance his stomach rolled with nausea, as he oscillated between anger, terror and guilt, trying to remind himself that Steve would do whatever he could for Gracie (though he couldn't help but wonder if he had heard Steve after all, was the SEAL even alive?), and that they had a suspect who would talk, tell them where the captives were, and allow this all to be over before anything else unpleasant could happen.

Chin, who had ridden in the ambulance with their suspect, met them at the door to inform them that the man had regained consciousness in the ambulance though he had not responded to any attempts to get him to talk, and was about to go up to surgery to repair the damage from his bullet injury. The doctors had said that they could not talk to him until after the surgery, which, unfortunately, was going to be a few hours.

Something in Danny snapped. "Are you telling me," he said in a deadly quiet voice, carefully enunciating every word, "that they are going to try to stop me from talking to a key witness?" Danny's voice was getting louder, and his arms were beginning to wave. "Are you in fact telling me that they are going to try and stop me from talking to one of the _animals_ who helped to _KIDNAP MY DAUGHTER_?"

Chin looked sympathetic. "I'm telling you that he's in room 415 and you've got about 15 minutes before the doctor needs to come back to take him up for the operation."

Danny deflated slightly. "Right. Perfect. Sorry about that Chin. Lead the way."

Kono, who was turning out to be a master at undercover work, went to distract the nurse sitting at the desk opposite the suspect's room, allowing Danno and Chin to walk in. The HPD officer stationed at the door appeared to be about to stop them before realising who it was and waving them through. Apparently he didn't mind the kidnapper being interrogated prior to his operation.

The man had one hand cuffed to the bed, and appeared to be awake, though it was clear that he was doped to the gills on pain meds. His eyes drifted unseeingly around the room.

Danny got his attention with a quick tap to his shoulder wound. The man's eyes shot open and latched onto the detective, who stood before him, his face set in an unfeeling mask.

"I'm going to make this really easy for you there buddy. You're going to tell me where my daughter was taken by your little friends, and I'm not going to hang you by that shoulder off this hospital."

There was no arguing with the tone that he was using. Still the man in the bed shook his head, trying to assume an 'I don't know what you're talking about' expression.

Danny gave the wound another light flick. "Listen moron, you were found unconscious with a bullet wound in you, wearing a balaclava in the school that she was abducted from. So I'm not going to buy this I don't know crap. I have seen men hung from buildings before. I've strapped a guy to the front of my car and driven him through the streets of Waikiki. And that was to find answers about people who I'm not directly related to. Do you think I care about the rules of procedure when my _kid _is missing? Try me buddy, just see how it goes."

His tone was deadly, and the fact that he had punctuated this speech with the occasional tap of the wound had the kidnapper cringing in pain. Danny hoped that he was getting through to the man. He figured that he was just a mercenary, which was why he was left behind in the first place, and would hopefully decide that he wasn't being paid enough to keep his mouth shut.

"What's it going to be pal? Want to go see what the view of the beach is like from the roof?" Danny motioned grandly to the door, while Chin (who apparently had a flair for drama) produced the key for the handcuff and moved forward to unlock it.

The kidnapper shook his head. "Ok, ok" he croaked, "I don't know much but I can tell you what I do know."

Danny waved impatiently for him to keep going. "Whole story pal. Otherwise we might go up to the roof anyway."

The suspect swallowed heavily, and began, his voice croaky but clear. "We were meant to grab the kid. We were going to get her leaving the school, but then we saw that she goin' back inside so we followed through the back door. It should have been easy, we'd grabbed her and were on the way out when that other guy arrived. Friend of yours? He shot me and I went down, and then went after Jim who had the kid. Screamed at her to run and then tried to take down the others. We would have just shot him, but we couldn't afford the noise, and we couldn't risk hitting the kid because the boss wanted her in one piece. Anyway, it was 3 on one with me down, but they were still only getting the odd good shot in on the guy, and then Mick had the bright idea to grab the kid and hold the gun to her, and that knocked the fight out right out of that Rambo guy. Probably Jim pistol whipping him helped knock it out too. He went a bit quiet after that. But then I must have passed out, because I came to and they were gone, so I had to go and try and find my own transportation. And that's where you came in."

Danny had taken the whole story apparently calmly, the only sign of his emotional state being the bone-crushing grip that he had on the rail of the bed. His face had gone slightly grey. He didn't say anything for a moment, and so Chin prompted the man.

"Where did they take them?"

"No idea, only Jimmy knew that. All I know was that it was very isolated; they didn't want anyone disturbing them. Somewhere in the forest on the other side of the island I think. And I'm pretty sure it's an old house, not a factory or something." Danny watched the man's face drain as he realised that this was not going to be enough information to be considered satisfactory. He scrambled for anything else that he could tell them. "It must be within about 40 minutes from here, because that was how long it took Jim to get to our meeting place this afternoon."

Danny sighed heavily. It was obvious that the man didn't know anything else. He supposed that he shouldn't have gotten his hopes up that this guy would get a map out and point to where Grace and Steve were being held.

There wasn't much more time to ask questions, because at that point the Doctor walked in, sending from the room with an angry bellow about the rights of patients and the need for rest.

Danny was half way through delegating Chin to ensure that there was an around the clock watch on their suspect after his surgery, while trying to work out what possible help the kidnapper's information could be, when his phone rang again.

His stomach rolled when he saw that the caller ID was once again saying Steve McGarrett.

"Try and trace the call!" He cried to Chin, before flipping the phone open and hardening his voice.

"Talk."

He was met with the distinct thud of flesh hitting flesh and almost threw up all over the nice pristine floor of the hospital.

"Gracie?" He whispered, hating himself for hoping to hear McGarrett's voice rather than hers. He figured that his partner would probably forgive him. After all, he was pretty sure that Steve would be more worried about Grace than himself in this situation anyway, self-sacrificing nutter that he was.

There was another thud. And then another and another. This one was followed by a grunt and a pained exhale. Danny took a second to be relieved that it was the sound of a grown man, but his relief was quickly overcome with anger and fear.

"What the hell is this Watson?" Danny shouted, hating the fact that all he could do was listen.

"Mr McGarrett was quite adamant that if a message needed to be sent he would be the one sending it." Watson replied jovially. _Pompous bastard. _"And I couldn't help but agree. After all, it must be awful not knowing what's happening to your poor partner." The next thud was so loud that it seemed to echo through the phone. There was a soft hiss of pain. "But I can appreciate that it must be even more awful not knowing when I'm going to decide to move onto little Gracie."

This statement was followed by the most worrying noise of all. There was a sort of buzz, and then an angry zap followed by a muffled angry sound that could only be someone swearing through a gag.

Danny steadied himself on a wall, trying desperately not to picture what was more than likely his partner being hit with a taser.

"Watson, I'm telling you, you don't need to do this. What happened was a long time ago and this isn't going to do anything to bring him back. I've never stopped regretting what happened, but my mistake doesn't mean that you need to do this."

There was a disgusted sound on the other end of the phone and then another zap. "A little late for regrets and apologies isn't it Detective? You can't stop this. I just want you to sit back helplessly and listen as I take Uncle Steve apart. And then, when he stops being entertaining, I'm going to move on to _little Gracie._ You think you regret what happened now, wait until you can hear your little girl screaming for you and can't do anything about it."

Watson chuckled and Danny almost put his hand through the wall.

"Oh and Detective? I wouldn't bother trying to trace this call. I've been assured by my computer tech that you've about as much chance of finding a needle in Canada as you do of finding us."

There was another thud, and then the call cut out, leaving the sound of Steve's pained breathing echoing with Watson's hateful laugh in Danny's head.

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**Oh my goodness. This chapter is like _The _**_**Odyssey**_** long, or at least that's what it feels like to me! It's up early because I started it and then got hooked and had to finish it! Hahaha. Hope you enjoyed it, little taster of some whump at the end there ****. Let me know what you think please, I attempted angry Danno and hope I got him right! Next chapter will probably be another week or so, because I really need to do some of that old uni stuff now...**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N- Once again I am overwhelmed by how much support this story has received! Thanks so much everyone!**

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Steve _hurt_. Like, all over. The ribs that had been sore were now in agony, and he was pretty sure that that at least one of them was now broken, though he was trying to stay positive, and think that maybe they were just cracked. (This was about as positive as Steve's thinking got at this point in time.) His nose was bleeding, as was his cheek, where a ring worn by one of the men punching him had caught him. His right eye, he was pretty sure, was on its way to being nice and black as he could feel the edges of his vision starting to fuzz slightly and the skin around it seemed increasingly tight. There was a pain throbbing through his head that was making him want to throw up all over Watson's shiny shoes. He was sure that he looked an absolute picture of health.

There wasn't much that he could do about any of this, of course, because he was strapped tightly into a hard wooden chair (so tightly, in fact, he wasn't sure he would ever have blood flow to his hands again). The gag was more embarrassing than annoying, but it had done its job, because he hadn't been able to communicate anything to Danny about their location, even though he had spent the time being walked back down the corridor into the main room of their prison thinking of subtle ways to impart information. The more he thought about it though Danny would probably claim ignorance at these, (subtle SEAL related hints tended to go straight over his head), and berate him upon arrival for not being more helpful. Possibly the gag had saved his partner some confusion.

Steve had been pretty sure he knew what was coming when a group of Watson's soldiers arrived at the door to the room he and Grace were in. He had taken the opportunity to gently slip Grace, who had fallen asleep and loosened her grip during his increasingly awesome story (right at the part where the seal was holding a naughty penguin off a roof while the lion shouted at him) onto the mattress in the corner, and then stood very directly in front of her. He had been lucky, the men had not seemed too bothered deviating from their original plan, which had been to take the little girl with them, and were happy to take him instead. (The small part of Steve that still liked to think the best of people thought this was possibly because they didn't relish the thought of actually physically harming an eight year old, but he was pretty sure that was giving them too much credit.) He had thought about waking Grace up to let her know what was happening, but didn't want her to then be awake in the empty room all by herself, and so he let her sleep, and crossed his fingers that she would remain asleep until he came back.

Watson had seemed slightly more put out that his men had selected the wrong hostage, (after all, they were pretty easy to distinguish), but he had soon changed his mind after some whispered discussions with the stocky man from the car, who appeared to be the second in command. The cat-meets-mouse look that he had given Steve after this discussion had not been one that inspired confidence. _Better you than Gracie_ had become a constant mantra humming through his head, helping him to focus and fight back any fear that was making his stomach roll in anticipation.

McGarrett was almost certain that he could have taken the five men in the room, though they were armed and he was not, and he had considered it for a moment as Watson gestured towards the chair that he was apparently expected to sit in. He had considered it for so long that one of the men had kindly given him a little shove towards the chair, and then forced him down onto it. Steve had decided not to push his luck, especially because he was pretty sure there were two more guards down the hall who would almost certainly get to Grace before he did. It was a new and different way of looking at things he had realised, being forced to stop and consider all the consequences of a plan before actually putting it into action. It was something he had always done while actually planning missions, but usually he just let himself act without an abundance of thought in the heat of the moment. He had good instincts and he used them well, and he hated the fact that he couldn't in this situation.

It had taken them a few hits to get the gag on him, eventually a punch to the stomach had made him gasp with pain and they had forced it into his mouth. Steve had decided pretty quickly that he really did not like gags.

He also hadn't like what Watson had termed as "softening up," which was basically getting the crap knocked out of him for a few minutes so that he would be sufficiently sore for the main event of the night; the phone call to Danny.

The main event of the night had been particularly awful. Partly because getting hit in the face a lot was never fun and being tasered was _certainly_ not a lot of fun (he was pretty sure his heart was still racing from the unpleasantly high jolts of electricity he had received), and partly because hearing an increasingly desperate Danno on the other end of the phone had been pretty awful too. Steve found himself more resolved than ever that nothing was going to happen to Grace on his watch. Danny had sounded broken enough as it was.

He was shaken from reliving the past few minutes at a cough from his strangely urbane captor. Watson smirked at him across the room. "How are you feeling Lieutenant Commander? Ready to stand up, or should we let you sit there and pant a little longer?"

Steve spat a few inappropriate phrases into the gag and glared at Watson.

"Ready to stand up and kick your ass you sonofabitch," he muttered angrily, though it came out as an indistinct murmur through the cloth in his mouth.

Watson grinned smugly, (apparently he had got the gist of Steve's words), and motioned for the men to untie the prisoner.

Steve stood up slowly, trying to appease all of the aches and pains in his body that were screaming for attention, a plan which sort of failed when he got a massive dizzy wave (suggesting that yeah, the headache was probably a full blown concussion now,) and almost collapsed straight back into the chair again. He was pleased when he regained his balance before the guards had to catch him.

He was being shoved towards the door when Watson called out to him, "Remember to keep behaving Mr McGarrett! Otherwise you know who will be making the next phone call to the detective."

Steve ignored this, concentrating instead on anything in the set up of the house that he had missed on his first trip to the room he and Grace were being kept in. He was more determined than ever that they would be escaping. Hopefully very soon.

Steve got a mighty push in the back to shove him into the small room where Grace was. He made sure to remain on his feet, glaring back at the men who were guarding him, until the door had closed. Then he was able to stagger back over to the corner where Grace was lying, still asleep, (he took a second to be incredibly thankful for that) and slump down to the wall, carefully supporting his ribs as he did so.

He had gotten a glimpse out of the window while in with Watson, and the sun was still in the sky, though it was starting to edge downwards. They had maybe another hour, maybe two, left before they lost the light. McGarrett was pretty sure that their best bet was going to be escaping before the sun went down. Usually he would wait for darkness, but he had noticed night vision goggles stashed in a corner of the main room, and so figured they were going to be at a disadvantage anyway, so they might as well go when they could see. Also, he was going to need Grace to run. Quickly. And this might be easier during the day. His head was pounding, and he could now hardly see out of his increasingly swollen eye. That his vision was also blurring in his left eye seemed to be pointing pretty clearly towards a concussion, something that his swirling stomach also appeared to be advocating. So it was going to be fairly essential that Grace was able to move on her own because carrying her was going to be terribly painful. (Although, if it came down to it, it wasn't like Steve was going to leave her, he was pretty sure he would carry her for miles even if he had a bullet wound if he really needed to.)

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There was no way of telling the time in the room, but Steve was sure that almost half an hour must have passed. He had spent this time switching between wracking his brain for any possible ideas on how he could get them both safely out of the house that they were in and into a hiding place in the forest (hopefully with a mobile phone handy so that they could call Danny), and just breathing hard, trying to get past the rather unpleasant pains that were dancing through his head and chest.

He could feel himself drifting, though he was trying to remain grounded, the concussion making him feel lightheaded and weak. The sound of a car driving that could be heard faintly through the wall roused him. It was a sound that was muted through the wall, but Steve was almost certain that it became softer rather than louder as he listened, suggesting that it was a car driving _away_ from wherever they were currently housed.

It was basically the best thing that had happened to him all day because it meant that they were down at least one bad guy.

Steve decided that it was the best odds that they were going to get, and so gave Grace a gentle shake to try and wake her up.

She came to with a start, and was genuinely confused for a second, obviously wondering what the heck her (rather untidy looking) Uncle Steve was doing waking her up. It was obvious the second that everything flooded back to her because her eyes shot open and she sat up with a yelp.

"Where's Daddy?" She asked, voice trembling. Apparently she had been hoping that whatever was happening was a dream (or at the very least that she would have been rescued by the time that she woke up.) As she asked she took a moment to observe Steve more closely, and her eyebrows shot into her hairline as she took in the bloody nose and what must have been a disgusting looking black eye.

"What happened Uncle Steve?"

He gave her his best attempt at a comforting grin. "I had a bit of a disagreement with the nasty men while you were asleep Gracie, that's all. Nothing to worry about."

She gave him what could only be described as a perfect, but miniature, version of Danny's "that's a load of bull" face.

Steve soldiered on, deciding they could worry about her disbelief later.

"Gracie, I need you to listen to me ok. I have a plan, because I think that its time we gave your dad some help finding us."

Steve made sure to explain the plan carefully, so that she wasn't confused on any of the salient points. Although, considering it really, the plan was not an overly difficult one to remember. McGarrett had noticed that their room was in the back corner of the house, and that there was a door leading outside in the next room which, he had noticed when he returned to their room, had been surprisingly left without any guards. He was increasingly getting the impression that the men who had taken them were good at hurting people, but not so good at the nuts and bolts of kidnapping; apparently they believed that the well locked door was a sufficient deterrent to escape. His plan, basically, was that when the guards came again to get him (which he was pretty sure would happen sooner rather than later, patience did not seem to be a virtue of Watson's), Steve would knock them out, and then he would grab their guns and Gracie would grab their phones, and they would run out the back door and hide in the trees till Danny came to find them.

It wasn't a great plan really, but he had decided that it certainly beat sitting around waiting to be tasered, especially because every moment they spent as kidnappees was one moment closer to Watson deciding that he had captured Grace for a particular reason, _and_ one more traumatising moment for Grace away from her family. (And one more moment that Steve had to go without the help of pain killers. As much as he loved being a macho tough guy, he _really _wanted some drugs.)

During his explanation Steve had been very careful to impress upon Grace the importance of her getting to the trees, no matter what else was going on. He was pretty sure that none of the men were outside, they had all seemed to be indoors the last time he left the room, and so the ex-SEAL hoped that once beyond the doors of the house where they were being held they would have a much better chance at survival. He had also attempted to describe the fact that she was going to need to find an absolutely stellar place to hide once in the trees, and to then be very quiet until someone in a police uniform came to get her.

Steve had been about to check her understanding of _the plan_ when footsteps were once again heard in the narrow hallway.

"Right, this is it Gracie. You ready?"

He decided that he would take her less-than-confident nod as a yes.

Making sure that his charge was behind him Steve pulled himself up, blocking out the pain and focusing on the task ahead, waiting to ambush the men as they opened it. _Well, here goes nothing. _

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**And there you have it! Sorry that this chapter was not much for action, I wanted to give Steve's side of the phone call from last chapter, and then sort of liked the point that it came too, and so stopped without popping back over to see how Danno was doing. (Hint- probs not so well.) Thanks for all your marvellous support! Things should hopefully start to get moving a bit more quickly next chapter, so stay tuned on marvellous readers! **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Sorry for the late update! Life sort of imploded this week and prevented me getting my usual writing time! Useless. Thanks as usual for all your awesome reviews! I didn't have time to reply individually this week, I figured you would probably prefer a new chapter to my effusive gratitude! I really do love you all though ****. Thanks for keeping on reading!**

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Danny, it must be noted, was doing a pretty good job of not hyperventilating. They were back at 5.0 headquarters by now, desperately trying to translate their injured suspect's testimony into anything that could be useful. Unfortunately "an old house somewhere within a 40 minute drive" did not exactly narrow the possibilities down all that substantially. It narrowed them a bit, which was probably why Danny was able to hold in the increasingly vocal part of his brain that wanted to throw things through glass walls, but there was still too much ground to cover.

It had been almost 45 minutes since Watson had called to let Danny listen into his partner get beaten. Try as he might he couldn't stop picturing unpleasant things in his head, unable to prevent himself mixing imagined pictures of his partner bleeding and tasered, with images from the past, of a night gone horribly wrong, a dead teenager lying ashen on a cold factory floor, and a hysterical father being dragged to a police car screaming he would have his revenge.

To be honest Danny wasn't sure what was worse, listening to the phone calls, or the horrible limbo that he was left in between them, glancing at his phone every other second, wondering if it would ring. He had hated having to listen to his partner grunt in pain on the other end of the line, but at least hearing him was an assurance that Steve was alive. And, Danny reminded himself, if Steve was alive then Grace was. It was the thing that was keeping him going, his faith that his partner would do everything in his power to protect Grace.

Williams shook himself from his thoughts to glance up and check the progress of his team mates. Maybe they had some information? Chin was on the phone on the other side of the office, talking to yet another real estate company about the possible empty old houses within a 40 minute drive of Grace's school. Kono was scanning bank records, phone lines, all the records of the kidnapper that they had in custody, in the hope that something would cross-references with something, that in turn would cross-reference with something that would lead them to the house where Steve and Grace were. The glances that she kept shooting at Steve's empty office, so fast that Danny wondered if she even noticed that she was doing it, reminded him once again that he was not the only one desperate to collect their lost friends.

Danny was just glancing back down to the impressive collection of maps that he had assembled when his phone rang. His heart sank into his shoes, though he felt slightly assured on the discovery that the caller-ID was providing him with an unknown number. Usually Watson had called from McGarrett's phone, obviously enjoying the psychological advantage that this gave him, but that didn't mean that he couldn't call from another phone.

Danny waved to his colleagues frantically, making sure that Chin had indicated he had the trace working before answering the phone.

"This is Detective Danny Williams."

"Daddy! Daddy please, please come find us! The bad men took Uncle Steve back, and I'm hiding in the forest and I'm scared! I think they were shooting their guns!" The terrified, whispered voice of his daughter sent Danny rocketing out of his seat as if he had been struck by lightening.

"GRACIE?" Danno almost dropped the phone he was so surprised. Fighting the urge to whoop for joy and do some sort of mad dance that she was definitely alive and speaking, and apparently out of Watson's custody Danny forced himself to concentrate. Obviously Steve was MIA, which was concerning. Gunshots was incredibly concerning. And Gracie was hiding? Being chased? He was moving towards his car before he was stopped short with the realisation that he still had absolutely no idea where he was going. "Gracie, what's happening, can you tell me where you are?"

She was out of breath and panting, and for a few seconds he just listened to the (glorious) sound of her pulling in air. "There are lots of trees Daddy. But I can smell the surf, even though I can't see it. And we were in a house, just a little one, and it had a long dirt driveway."

He had put the phone on speaker, and could see Chin and Kono frantically adding this new data into what they had already compiled, though it still wasn't very much.

"Anything else Gracie? Anything else that you can think of will help as get there even faster. We're coming monkey, we're coming as fast as we can."

"Oh! We drove north. Uncle Steve said that I needed to tell you that we drove north, mostly on a main road."

Danny could hear the typing on the other side of the room get even more frantic. This, finally, was information that was definitely useful.

The mention of Steve had sobered Grace slightly, and her voice, which had calmed slightly once she was talking to her father, took on the slightly hysterical tone that she had first spoken with.

"He told me to run Daddy. Uncle Steve gave me the phone, and then he told me to run and hide, but he hasn't come to find me like he said he would and now I'm scared. I don't like the forest, and I don't like those scary men, and I think Uncle Steve might still be with them." This had all come out at lightening speed, and Danny could hear tears starting to creep into her voice as she finished talking. On a good day he hated having to hear Grace cry, on a day like today it was almost the straw that broke the camel's back. He could feel his own throat closing over as he struggled to force words out confidently.

"We're coming monkey. Chin and Kono and I are in our car and we're coming to you ok. So you remember that Danno loves you and he's coming ok? And we're going to save Uncle Steve too. But you don't need to worry about Uncle Steve, because he's Rambo remember? Remember all the crazy stories you've heard about Uncle Steve? He likes to wrestle bears and jump off buildings to see if he can fly remember? I doubt that a few scary men will be able to stop him."

Danny forced himself to keep his voice upbeat, trying to buy into what seemed like a falsely optimistic position.

Kono on the other side of the room was just about jumping up and down with excitement.

"Got a location! Yesterday our kidnapper recieved a call from a cell tower to the north, and there are only a few properties near there. One of them is only a few hundred metres from the beach, and is located in a particularly dense bit of the forest. That must be it!"

Danny thought that he might die from an adrenaline burst as the excitement raced through him at her words. They were sprinting to the car even before she had finished the final word in her sentence, Chin already bellowing into his mobile about where the backup should be meeting them.

"Did you hear that Gracie? We know where you are! So you just make sure that you stay hidden, alright monkey? I want you to keep the phone on, but only talk if you really start to get scared ok, because you need to use your ears and listen if anyone is coming. That's your job ok? You stay hidden and you just remember that I'm almost there. I love you monkey, I love you so much."

"I love you too Daddy," she whispered.

Danny kept phone pressed close to him, listening to her soft breathing. He couldn't help but be slightly terrified about where McGarrett was while all of this was happening. Obviously the lunatic had devised a plan that had allowed Grace to escape, but he had not been so lucky. The father and the partner in him warred for dominance as Danny fluctuated between relief that Grace was safe, and terror at what the consequences of freeing the most valuable hostage could be for the more expendable member of the kidnapping. Danny knew Watson. He was certainly not a man to tolerate his plans being disrupted.

Visions of a past that Danny had long tried to forget seemed to flitter across his mind. He blinked his eyes frantically, trying to focus on the buildings flying past the window as Chin roared through the city, rather than consider an image of Steve McGarrett lying just as dead as Douglas had all those years ago on that factory floor.

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McGarrett had to admit that the plan had not been foolproof. He also had to admit that this was not unusual for his plans. Still, it had actually gone fairly well all things considered, though waking up tied into his least favourite chair in the world, an irate Watson bellowing incoherently at his soldiers suggested that it could have gone better.

A quick inventory of his body suggested that the escape had not really helped his current injury tally. He was pretty sure that ribs that were cracked were broken too now, and they were pressing uncomfortably as he took increasingly shallow breaths. It was apparently a miracle that he hadn't punctured a lung. His nose was broken, and his face felt even more absurdly sore than it had previously. His right arm, strapped tightly into the restraints of the chair, felt like it was trying to actually detach from his body, and he didn't need to look to know that it was broken. Ouch.

Understandably, he didn't entirely remember everything. He remembered bursting out of the room and managing to overwhelm the guards fairly quickly. He had grabbed a phone of one of their belts, and a gun off the other, and that had been all the time he had had before the other minions had realised what was going on. He had forced the phone into Grace's hand and pushed her out the back door, taking a few steps to make sure that no one was guarding outside (thankfully no one was, Steve loved amateurs) before pointing her in the direction of the thickest looking part of the bush and shouting for her to run.

"Keep running Gracie! Run and hide and then you call Danno!"

She had looked back for a split second and his heart had momentarily stopped, thinking that she was going to repeat what happened at the school and wait for him, but she knew the plan this time, and took off towards the forest, disappearing almost immediately.

He remembered that he had turned around to find the minions almost on top of him, just starting to come out of the door, and had opened fire, deciding that Gracie had a better chance if he covered her exit with an offensive rather than just disappearing into the woods.

Things got a bit hazy at this point, and Steve blamed the almost unbearable screaming in his head for that. Concussions, apparently, were not ideal for stimulating memory. He was pretty sure he had taken out a couple before his stolen weapon ran out of ammo. Then he had been reduced to hand to hand, launching himself at the men before they really got a chance to regroup after the hail of gunfire that he had aimed at them. He thought that might have gone ok for a while, but eventually the numbers must have overwhelmed him.

Steve had finally gotten himself together enough to try and work out what was happening in the room. Watson, obviously, was pretty unimpressed by the most recent turn of events. He was obviously a traditionalist at heart because he was loudly threatening the terrible consequences that would befall his hired help if they didn't find the little girl soon. Steve, despite the situation that he was in couldn't help crossing his fingers and hoping that Grace had managed to find an incredible hiding spot somewhere in the forest, and that she had contacted Danno, who was hopefully on his way right now with a truckload of back up. Maybe even two truckloads. And a rocket launcher. Steve had always been a fan of rocket launchers.

He shifted slightly in the chair, sending spikes of agony up his arm and through his ribs. A tiny groan escaped, which stopped Watson mid-below and drew his attention to his now only captive.

His voice as he spoke to Steve was a far cry from the near hysteria that had infected his tone as he shouted at the help. Now it was razor sharp, and dangerously cold. Steve quickly added Watson to the mental tally he kept of bad people whom he had pushed over the edge.

"I underestimated you Commander McGarrett," said Watson, his voice seeming to echo around the room despite being deadly quiet. He was holding a gun, almost idly, in his right hand.

There was a deathly silent pause where all Steve could hear was his own ragged breathing.

Suddenly Watson was holding the gun purposefully, eyes wild as he pointed it at McGarrett. The SEAL forced himself to remain calm, staring back at the man. He reminded himself that Grace was safe, and that Danno was coming.

"I won't make that mistake again."

The crack of the gunshot reverberated through the room.

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***Hides behind couch*…So bit of a cliffie there…sorry about that. Next chapter should be about the same time next week, will do my best to make it sooner though! Thanks again for all of your support! **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Ok, so I am a terrible, horrible, no good person! I am SO sorry, Uni ate my life! But now I have a whole week off for Easter, and so I am going to try and make it up to you by hopefully getting a double update this week. Thanks of course to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, they made me feel very special (and also helped create a terrible gnawing feeling of guilt that I hadn't updated for so long!) Also, someone suggested I try Grace, and I did attempt her, but not sure I got her right!

(P.S Person who was annoyed by my author's notes, sorry about them, but I specially unbolded them for you if that helps :D.)

But seriously, SORRY SORRY SORRY! And also, people who were afraid that the story was abandoned, it isn't, uni is just a life ruiner, and so sometimes it isn't easy to get out an update!

* * *

Steve managed to catch the scream that tore from his throat pretty quickly, not wanting to give Watson the satisfaction of hearing him give voice to just how much it hurt to have the bullet tear through his shoulder. There was a second where he couldn't hear anything, just a roar in his mind, as he tried to breathe through the pain. He had been shot before, but that did not make this time any less painful. Especially because Watson had shot the same shoulder that was attached to his already broken arm. The pain was so bad that he couldn't breathe, and his vision faded to a terrible gray fog.

It took a second for the roar to clear, and for Steve to be able to concentrate on anything other than just breathing through the pain. When his focus did return to his current situation he became aware that Watson was standing directly in front of him, playing with the gun. His eyes were not as wild as they had been, instead they now held a much more determined and purposeful look. Steve wasn't sure if that was better or worse.

"Back with us Commander McGarrett?" Watson questioned, "I feel that we lost you for a moment there."

Steve replied with a grunt. He was too busy trying to concentrate on breathing through the pain to really have much energy for paying Watson all that much attention.

"I told you not to try my patience Commander. Now I want to know where you told little Grace to hide, or I'm going to make things even more unpleasant for you."

Steve resisted the urge to snort derisively, wishing he had the breath to tell Watson to go to hell.

It seemed that Watson got the message as if Steve had spoken though, because his gaze hardened, and Steve found himself taking yet another hit to the face. His body twisted with the impact, and his vision whited out as his right arm and shoulder screamed in pain.

Watson was being pretty patient, all things considered, because once again he waited for Steve to be able to focus on the room again before talking.

"I know that you think that I am the worst kind of man Commander, but what you don't understand is that nothing in the world can hurt you like the loss of child, and I need your Detective Williams to feel that pain the way he made me feel it when he killed my son."

Steve had struggled valiantly to hang onto Watson's words, but it still took him a second to understand what was being said. Danny had killed this guy's son? Well that would explain the anger, and the fact that Grace had been targeted. Steve tried not to give away that he was too interested in knowing more about what Watson had to say, as any information that he could get on why all of this was happening was going to be useful.

"I think that you don't believe me Commander. It's difficult to accept the truth sometimes, but let me tell you that my son was 17 years old and your partner shot him dead when he had done nothing wrong."

"I don't believe you," Steve gasped out, wishing that his body would stop hurting for just a moment.

"I don't care what you believe McGarrett, what you're going to do is tell me where that little girl is hiding. My men are searching the forest, but if you speed up the process then I can at least promise to make your death quick."

Steve took as deep a breath as he could, (which wasn't much of one really because of his ribs), "I don't believe that Danno did what you say he did Watson, but even if it was true I wouldn't help you find Grace. You're a sick bastard going after a little kid like that."

He didn't see the punch that knocked him out.

* * *

Grace was trying very hard not to be scared. She was lying pressed to the ground under some bushes, listening to her dad's breathing on the other end of the phone. Every now and then he would whisper something about how they were coming as fast as possible, and then she would be left to try and discern whether or not all the foreign sounding noises around her were the scary men coming to find her, or just normal animal noises.

Usually Gracie liked forests. Not as much as she liked beaches, and swimming and dolphins, but forests were generally pretty cool. Uncle Steve had taken her and Danno only a few weeks ago for an awesome bushwalk, and that had been lots of fun, because listening to Danno and Uncle Steve tease each was always amusing, and they had seen some beautiful views too. Today, however, what was usually nice about forests, that they were kinda mysterious, and filled with all sorts of interesting things, was not nice. Grace was not enjoying the creeping darkness, or the fact that the light was getting softer and softer as the sun went down. She was trying to remind herself what mummy usually said about the dark, that it was only scary if you let it get to you, but right now the forest was _very _scary, and she was pretty sure that once the sun went down it was going to get a lot scarier.

Daddy was coming. Grace knew that. She believed him when he said that he was going to get there as soon as possible, but it was easy to forget that as she lay on the spiky ground, getting colder, and wanting to jump at every tiny noise.

She also didn't know what had happened to Uncle Steve, and that worried her too. Danno had said that Uncle Steve would be fine, and from all the stories that she had heard about him it seemed like he could do almost anything, but she still worried.

"Gracie?" Danno said down the phone, "Gracie we've arrived and we're just coming through the forest now. Can you describe what it looks like where you are, and we'll then we can find you."

Gracie peeked up from where she was pressed into the ground. Everything looked dark and shadowed, and all the trees looked the same. Still, she did her best to describe her current location, hoping that her Dad would work it out. He wasn't really all that good at understanding directions, or forests, and Grace knew that he loved concrete and cities the same way that she loved sunsets and wriggling her toes in the sand (she knew this because every time she did something particularly 'Hawaiian' he would whip out a picture of New Jersey to remind her of what 'civilisation' looked like.) Still, she was pretty sure that just because he didn't like forests he was still fairly capable of navigating through one, and besides, he had promised that he would find her.

* * *

It all looked the same. It was getting darker, which didn't help, but Danny was feeling increasingly desperate about there ever being a possibility of him finding Grace in the forest, which was starting to feel bigger and bigger.

She had described bushes, and tall trees, which was the view in every direction. Danny knew that it was very likely that Watson's men were also wandering through the forest trying to find her, which increased the degree of difficulty, because it meant that he, Kono and Chin were needing to move as stealthily as possible through the trees, and prevented them from simply bellowing out Grace's name.

Finally, just as the sun was really beginning to set in earnest, Danny caught sight of a small squint of white under a bush. He waved Kono and Chin over, and they crept closer together.

"Gracie," Williams whispered into the phone, "I think that we're quite close to you, do you want to wriggle out from under your book just to see if you can see us?"

And then, in what Danny was sure was going to end up one of the most exciting moments of his entire life, the squint of white started to wriggle a little, and then, like a marvellous moment in a dream, Gracie emerged from the bushes. She was grubby, and there was evidence of tear tracks down her face, but she was moving, and _alive. _In that moment Danny couldn't think that anything more beautiful could exist in the world. He forgot everything around him, forgot the forest, Chin and Kono, the armed baddies that were moving through the area, Steve, Watson, _everything_. There was only him, and his daughter, who he ran to sweep into his arms and squeeze as tightly as he could without hurting her. (She obviously had the same idea, and a grip of iron, because during their hug Danny was pretty sure that she got close to destroying his ribs.)

"You came Daddy, you came!" She gasped, "You found me! I was so scared that you wouldn't, and that the sun would go down and I would be stuck here forever!"

"It's ok Gracie, Danno's got you now, and nothing is going to happen to you now."

Danny was pretty sure that he could have stood there with her for a very long time, but Chin was motioning for him to quieten down, and gesturing back towards where they had parked the car, before they had begun to move through the forest on foot. It was enough to drag Danny unpleasantly back into reality. Grace had been found, but none of them were safe yet, and they still had no idea where Steve was, or what was happening to him. There was still a lot of work to do.

Reluctantly, Danny put Grace back on the ground again. He had had a moment as a father, but now it was time to be a police officer and a partner. Steve had gotten Grace away from Watson, and now it was time for Danny to return the favour.

"Ok, so here's the plan. Gracie, what I need you to do Monkey is go with Kono back to the car. She's going to take care of you, and then you guys are going to get in that car, and drive back to the city, and straight to the hospital so that you can get checked over. Kono will call mummy and step-Stan to meet you there ok?" He addressed himself to Gracie, but was looking at Kono, hoping that she was getting his unspoken message that he didn't want Grace anywhere near this place any longer than she needed to be.

"Kono, the back-up should be getting pretty close by now, so direct them down towards us once you get near the car. Chin and I are going after Steve."

Both Grace and Kono looked ready to protest, but he stopped them with a look. "Kono, I can't concentrate with her nearby, and Steve is my partner, so I need to go after him. I'm trusting you to get her to that car and then to the hospital without any problems. Call the HPD and make sure there is a uniform to meet you there, so that there is a guard with her at all times. And if you could let Rachel know too please, she must be going crazy. And Gracie, I know that you want to help, because you are the sweetest little girl in the whole world, and you always want to help, but right now the best thing that you can do is go with Kono and then see your mum and show her that you're ok."

Gracie nodded, getting a little bit teary, and he swept in give her another hug, because he was just so relieved to see her that he couldn't help it.

"Find Uncle Steve please Danno," she whispered in his ear, "you need to save him from the bad men the way that he saved me."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me. I am SOOO sorry. There were, though not in this order, complications including a car accident, uni being the most annoying thing in the world x 17, a holiday interlude, writers block, exams (blergh), a computer malfunction, the flu that morphed into the plague, and a host of other frustrations. Still, I have no real excuse for the shear amount of time that it has taken for me to post this, pretty mediocre, chapter. So, SORRY about the wait for the update, only two chapters to go now (I think) and, though I am now afraid to make promises, I am hopefully not going to take too long with them.

If you are still reading this even after all the wait, thanks for your support, would love to know what you thought of this chapter! Thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter, and for all the people who kept nudging me to keep writing me, it was the gnawing guilt that eventually got me moving!

* * *

Danny wanted to watch Grace and Kono walk away until they were out of sight, because in his mind the further back into the woods they were, and the closer to the car, the more air that his lungs could start to take in. Part of the great weight on his shoulders was lifting, but not knowing what was happening with Steve meant that it couldn't lift completely. The ex-SEAL might think that he was Rambo, but that didn't mean that he was invincible.

Danny tore his mind away from Grace, and forced himself to focus on the present task. It was a time for concentration, and Steve deserved nothing less than his full attention.

Chin was moving swiftly and silently ahead of Danny through the undergrowth. It was almost completely dark now, and Williams hoped that the back up that must be almost there to help them was bringing night-vision goggles, because otherwise it was going to get pretty difficult to see, and that was always fairly important when attempting rescue missions from long-lost psychopathic enemies.

An ancient looking cottage appeared through the trees, and Chin held up his hand to signal that they should stop. They ducked behind a tree, and then it was time to make the decision of whether or not they should proceed any closer and commit themselves to a rescue right now. Danny was torn. He knew that back-up was on the way, and that though they had now found the place where Steve was the best option would be to wait patiently for some help to arrive. After all this was what he constantly berated his partner for, rushing into situations without enough planning beforehand, and Danny was not really a fan of being a hypocrite.

The decision was basically made for him when the deathly silence of the forest was abruptly broken by the echo of a gunshot. Danny was momentarily paralysed by a cold rush of fear grabbing at his heart, and then he was running towards the house before he even realised what he was doing, keeping to the shadows and then pressing himself to the side of the house so that he was practically invisible. He didn't even need to look beside him to know that Chin was there too.

He wasn't prepared to believe that the gunshot had been Watson shooting his partner. And he certainly wasn't prepared to let McGarrett die while they stood outside waiting for the HPD to arrive. It was time to move now, even if the HPD officers weren't there yet.

Danny leant against the building, edging closer to the window, where a slit of light could be seen leaking out through a hole in the drawn curtains. The walls of the house were thin and old, and leaning up against them it was possible to hear what was going on inside. Both Danny and Chin moved as close as they could to the wall, hoping to be able to get some sense of what was going on inside before bursting in. It was almost impossible to breathe as they waited desperately to hear Steve's voice, confirming that they had not been too late to help him.

Watson was sounding increasingly frustrated as he demanded again and again that he be given information on where Grace would have run to hide. Danny felt memories rushing back to him as the sound of Watson's frantic anger transported him into the past, but he fought them off. He wasn't in New Jersey, he was in Hawaii. He was pressed up what must have been the most ramshackle house in Hawaii, not crouched behind crates in a freezing warehouse. He could relive the past once he had protected his present partner. It was clear from the way that he was demanding answers that Watson was talking to Steve, and it was an enormous relief to know that McGarrett was still alive and pissing people off the way that he did best. Danny exchanged a glance with Chin, it was clear that they were both still waiting to actually hear their friend's voice before either was prepared to fully accept that he was alive.

Finally, after it seemed like Watson had been berating and shouting for ages with no response there was a rasping sound, and Danny heard his partner gasp something that sounded rude and unhelpful. McGarrett didn't sound well, but he was alive, and that was definitely enough for Danny.

The change in Watson's tone was what pushed them to finally move into the house without bothering about backup. It was clear that he had recognised that McGarrett was not planning to say anything else, and was about to do something that was going to be quite irreparable. Danny exchanged a glance with Chin, who nodded and held out his weapon, ready to race into the building.

There wasn't time to come up with much of a plan, but neither of the men were prepared to wait any longer than they already had, and so they slipped around to the nearest door, and Chin stepped up, bashing it in with his foot and stepping through while Danny raced in after him, finding Watson and covering him with his weapon before the man had a chance to react.

There was a moment of stunned confusion for everyone involved. Watson apparently had thought his hiding place invisible, from the look on his face it seemed that he had never considered the possibility that the police would discover them before he had carried out his plan. He stood in the middle of the room, mouth open mid-rant, staring at Danny. There was only one other man in the room, and Chin was covering him with his weapon. Neither Chin or Danny had time to consider how lucky they were that only one other man was in there to assist Watson, because they were too busy trying to absorb the shock of just how bad Steve looked. He was tied in a chair, and was an ashen grey colour more often associated with dead bodies than live and vigorous ex-SEALs. Blood dripped from his shoulder, and the same arm was twisted and swollen, clearly broken. His face was bruised and swollen as well, and blood was dripping from a number of cuts all over his body. Danny could hear that his breathing was raspy, clearly pointing to troubles with his ribs hidden under his rather tattered shirt.

After a second everyone managed to shake off their confusion, Watson shut his mouth with a tight snap only to open it again so that he could start yelling abuse at Danny, and the detective was able to pull his attention away from Steve so that he could fully focus on the man who had tried to kill both his daughter and his partner.

"Drop the gun Watson!" Danny shouted. He gestured to the other man in the room, who had turned to point his gun back at Chin, and was looking nervously at Watson for instructions. "You too!"

It was only at a nod from his employer that the man dropped his gun and kicked it towards Chin, while Watson leant down to place his weapon on the ground, before carelessly kicking it away from all the men in the room so that it came to rest abandoned in the far corner. Satisfied that they weren't in any immediate danger Danny began to shuffle forward towards Steve, taking care to watch the room and make sure that there were no other surprises waiting for them. He didn't trust the look on his enemy's face.

"You made a terrible mistake today Watson." He said, trying to ignore Steve's gasping breaths, or the fact that he was clearly having trouble understanding what the hell was going on because his eyes kept slipping close, and cursing the fact that their backup had not arrived yet with an ambulance in tow, "You're going away for a really long, long time. You're never going to be able to hurt my family or my friends ever again."

Watson glared at him, managing to convey more hate that Danny had ever felt in a single look. It was not, as he had been expecting, the look of a man facing overwhelming and crushing defeat, though there was an undertone of desperation in it.

Apparently, though both he and his unarmed soldier-for-hire were clearly being covered by the armed Chin and Danny, Watson had another trick up his sleeve.


End file.
